The purpose of this essay is to create a better understanding for the characters found in Arthur Miller’s, The Crucible. Many of these individuals behave in a specific way that may cause the reader to be confused. However, by using Kohlberg’s moral precepts, one can obtain a better understanding for the motivation the individuals had for behaving as they are portrayed. This essay will look at the three different categories of Kohlberg’s moral precepts and use them to illustrate the motivation each character felt. These three categories are pre-conventional, conventional, and post-conventional.
There are many pre-conventional characters in the Crucible. These characters behave in such a way that it allows them to obtain reward and avoid punishment. To begin with, Betty Parris is seen as a pre-conventional character. She has been sleeping for an extended period when Abigail storms in and yells, “[Betty] Stop this now.” This illustrates Betty is pre-conventional because she is pretending to be asleep so that she would not get blamed and punished for what she has done. She went dancing with the other girls in the forest, but since everyone in the town is a puritan, it is illegal. Betty knew that once she woke up, she would be in a lot of trouble. Of course, she did not want to get into all that trouble, so she lay there pretending to be asleep, but Abigail knew what was going on, therefore she was trying to wake up Betty by screaming at her. Another character is Thomas Putnam. He is being accused that he is the reason why George Jacobs is in jail, but he quickly denies the accusation and calls it “a lie” directly to Danforth. The reason why Putnam is calling it a lie is because he does not want to be imprisoned for Corey’s accusation, and because if George Jacobs is in prison, that means all his land is up for sale. Putnam is the only person in the town that can afford his land, thus he wants Jacobs in jail so that he can buy the property. Because of this behaviour, it is clear that Putnam wants to avoid punishment and have the opportunity to receive a reward. Lastly, there is Mary Warren, who is espied as being a character that acts in such way to avoid punishment. Mary appears like this when John Proctor is about to whip her because she is trying to find the devil, but Mary abruptly points to Elizabeth Proctor and says that she “saved her life today” which then immediately stopped John from whipping her. This gave Mary time to explain herself about how she saved Elizabeth’s life so that John would not beat her. Mary saving Elizabeth’s life is the right thing to do anyways, but she only told John because she was about to get whipped. She would not have told them if she was not under the pressure of getting abused, and this shows that Mary only reacted this way to avoid punishment. It is evident that in this literature, there are several pre-conventional characters.
In this play, there are plenty of conventional characters. Conventional behaviour consists of an individual behaving in a specific way to receive approval and acceptance from a group. As we know, Mary is a pre-conventional character, but she is also seen as a conventional character. She is seen like this because the whole village is talking about witchcraft, and Mary does not want everyone to be “callin [her a] witch.” Therefore, Mary decides not to say anything and to keep quiet so that she will not ruin her name in the village. If she stayed quiet and no one knew about her being involved in witchery, she would still have a good name and be accepted by everyone in the town. Realizing this, Mary decides not to tell the truth, but just to stay quiet and still be liked by the people. Clearly, the right thing to do is to tell the truth, but Mary wants to be accepted as a good person by the village, and this choice shows the conventional behaviour by Mary Warren. The next character is Mercy Lewis. As Abigail was impersonating Mary, all the girls, including Mercy followed and replied with, “Abby you mustn’t.” This demonstrates that Mercy went along with the group and followed what Abigail did. Mercy knew that Abigail was being dishonorable, but since all the other girls were following Abigail, Mercy did not want to feel left out. So, she went along and copied the rest of the girls just so that she could fit in and feel accepted. Lastly, Hale is discovered to behave in such a manner as to fit in and be accepted by the group. As he is introduced to the other characters, immediately he sees Rebecca Nurse and compliments her by saying she “look[s] as such a good soul should.” This interaction shows Hale is trying to make a good first impression on Rebecca and the others, especially because he believes he is superior to them. By doing this, Parris, Putnam and everybody else will accept Hale into the group and eventually Hale will act as the leader towards them. Hale is only behaving in this way so that he can be liked and fit in with everyone as he is introduced. This will give him a better opportunity to get closer to them, but to still feel superior over the others. It is tangible that there are numerous conventional characters in Arthur Miller’s writing.
Finally, there are multifarious post conventional characters in The Crucible. This is when you act in a way that reflects an internalized sense of right and wrong. The sense of morality is not affected by reward, punishment, or by group acceptance. The first character that displays post conventional behaviour is Rebecca Nurse. She shows this when she is forced to tell the truth about speaking with the devil but cannot because “it is a lie” and she does not want too “damn” herself. At this point in the play, John has confessed, and they are trying to make Rebecca confess as well, but Rebecca knows that it is not true and will not admit anything. She knows if she does not come clean, she will be hanged, but she has no concern for the punishment that she will receive as long as she is standing for what she believes in. Rebecca is behaving like this because she believes in telling the truth, and she would rather die telling the truth than lie but be alive. In addition, there is Betty Parris. All of sudden, Betty wakes up and screams, “You drank a charm to kill John Proctor’s wife” to Abigail and the other girls in the room. Betty did this to stick up for the other girls and to prove to them that Abigail is evil. Betty did what she thought was right, even though she knew that Abigail would then proceed to slap her for saying what she said. There was no concern for any punishment, in fact Betty was aware of how corrupt Abigail had become and just wanted the girls to know what Abigail is capable of doing and how villainous she really is. At last, there is Giles Corey who behaved in a way that illustrated his beliefs and had no worries about any punishment he was going to face. Giles was being pressed with heavy weights, and for them to take off the weights, Giles had to confess, but the only thing that he said was, “more weight” because he did not want to talk. This behaviour demonstrates that Giles was not bothered for the punishment that was about to happen to him because if he stayed silent, he would still die as a Christian. Because Giles died as a Christian, his children would receive his land and still be wealthy. So, Giles stayed silent and took the punishment so that his kids would stay wealthy and succeed. This is what Giles believed in, and he did not care to be punished as long as what he believed in was right. To conclude, in The Crucible, there are countless post conventional characters.
This paper has made it evident that many characters within this play behave in a strange, and possibly a confusing manner. Although, by taking each character and using a direct quote from the play, along with deconstructing the motivations, their behaviour and the reasons behind it have become clear. Kohlberg’s principles are seen as a valuable vehicle that aids the reader in a better understanding of the play as well as human nature in general. This essay has achieved what it was created to do, and it gave greater insight into the literature along with the characters.
